What does courage look like? Sometimes courage comes as a whisper and done through small acts of bravery. Courage comes in all sizes. It shows up when you’re nervous about a new job, but you take a deep breath and walk through those doors on your first day. And sometimes courage comes when you decide you deserve a life of healing and honoring your story so you can take hold of the life you’re meant to live. This begins by digging deep down into your heart and pulling out the muck that has settled over the years. I call this Soul Excavation and I continue to do this work to enable myself to constantly reach my full potential as a woman of strength and resilience. This work is pure self-love. I’m committed to it because my goal is to teach other women how to uncover or recover their strength and stand in their power to fulfill their purpose. The teacher never stops learning.
It’s a consistent use of my energy and strength to lift out the broken shards of glass that settled deep into my soul from past traumas. It’s an undoing of what I learned as a young child. Those formative years stay with you into adulthood.
This type of courage is looking in the darkest corners of the world within you, to find the lost and hidden pieces that were locked away or forgotten… and then finding your way back through hell to reach your true, glorious self on the other side. It’s sliding back that deadbolt on the attic door of your mind to let light shine on the face of your wounded self. You no longer have to hide in shame or fear. Those parts of you can now tell their story and be heard. It’s through telling your story that you take your power back.
WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?
You and those lost pieces of you… standing side by side, hand in hand, on the edge of a cliff looking far down into the hollows where ashes smolder and rubble from all of your journey’s battles remains. You both sit there; you and your re-discovered you, garbed in armor and breathing deep breaths while taking in all that you conquered. Your present-day self can show your younger wounded self that it’s time to say good-bye to that hiding space and step into present day. Show that part who you are now and who you’ve become. You need to get to know one another again.
You bravely revisit the demons; the ones you have been hiding from, and slowly you recognize them again. You see that most of what you thought were demons were actually pieces of your soul that got stuck in time, held as prisoner by its traumas. You hold yourself, and softly speak the truth over and over:
“You are worthy. You are safe. You are powerful. You can come home now.”
This courage is one that starts as a nausea-inducing chokehold. It’s truly a war that rages inside. But it is through this very war that we can feel warmth, rest our turmoil, and breath deep, fresh air into our lives again. We are meant to fully live and take in all that life has to offer us.
Your armor is dented and scratched, but when the ashes and rubble settle… the sunlight shines through brilliantly, gleaming off your armor. The war is over, you’re safe, you’re home. Your story will serve others too, Brave Soul.
You are new. Your soul is set free. You are a courageous warrior. You are a Phoenix rising.
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